Sacredness of Creation: Living a Core Value of Carlow University

“We reverence each person and all of creation and the diversity they embody.” This is the Sacredness of Creation Core Value of Carlow University. The above definition was taken from the university's website.

I chose this specific core value to practice for seven days and blog about because it is something that I never really understood and took the time to live out.  The first thing I did was to break down the core value, so I could better comprehend and perform it more effectively.  Therefore, my interpretation of the value is we the Carlow community (students, staff, etc.) will respect and admire each human being, and all that make up the person inside and out; hence, valuing the human of any form or background without prejudice or disregard. 

To me, the college experience was going to be life changing and educating.  I never thought or delved too deep into Carlow’s mission statement, core values or sisters of mercy.   I am definitely not the person or student I was when I arrived at Carlow in August of 2008, and I will probably not be the same person when I graduate.  I never thought a college would concentrate so much on the human spirit.  I feel that everything that Carlow wants us to take from this experience is to find ourselves, through empowering others and embracing service to make a better world that is just and merciful. 

 I have spent the last week focusing on this core value, and thinking about how exactly the idea of Sacredness of Creation related to me. I found that, this value made me question myself each day.  For instance, did I say the right thing to make sure I reverenced someone’s dignity and humanity?  It made me check myself multiple times; to make sure I was following the core value.  It made me more aware of what I was thinking, saying, and doing.  I was taking a more active rather than passive role in helping others, and giving compliments to people I never meant.  I was making people smile and it made me feel wonderful.  I made sure that everything that was coming out of my mouth and off my hands was considerate and full of empowerment for the people around me.  Everyone is special, everyone is different, yet we all have a similar beating heart and a soul.  I feel like a better person because I was able to focus on others rather than myself.  I forget that there is this greater world out, and that we need to make a gesture in it to show that we are here and that we care. 

I felt that this value directly related to human dignity.  For myself, it fit my personal definition of human dignity almost perfectly and the class’s definition quite well.  Respect and interpersonal relationships are evident throughout the “Sacredness of Creation” core value, and they are major points for understanding human dignity.  People around the world should try to strive to live this value each day.  So many people could benefit from its single sentence definition.  Things could really change for all of us.  This world needs appreciation and understanding for each other, and without it, I do not believe we are humans at all.  We would be shells without emotion.  This core is the emotion and passion that is needed to make human dignity and to make the world a better place. 

Restoring Dignity

An example of dignity withheld or exemplification of humanity in my lifetime is this story of the Chilean miners in 2010.  On August 5, 2010, a cave-in occurred at the San José copper-gold mine in the Atacama Desert near Copiapó, Chile. The accident left 33 men trapped 700 meters (2,300 ft) below ground.  The miners survived underground for a record 69 days.  All 33 were rescued and brought to the surface on October 13, 2010. 

One by one, from the strongest to the weakest, the men surfaced and were able to breathe in a new air of freedom. The youngest miner, 19 surfaced and into the open arms of his wife and months old baby; the oldest, 63 surfaced, and dropped to his knees in prayer, while holding the Chilean flag. As the rescue capsule, the Phoenix, painted in the colors of the Chilean flag, dutifully, made its descent and ascent, repeatedly, into the deep, dark and narrow opening, and not without the prayers from all their families and all their new fans from around the world.  There are continued concerns for the health and psychosocial well-being of the miners.  Soon, the reality of their rescue and the resumption of normal life will set in as the stress of their own surface problems remind them that they are now home. 

The greatest thing to come from this momentous event is that it brings us all too again understanding and the underlying purpose of humanity.  In addition, of how faith and hope can still be the light that shines forth redeeming the imperishable will of the human spirit.  That determination and the goodwill of others, even in our darkest hours, will always remain the redeeming quality of humankind’s ability to unite and be an unyielding resource for all humanity.  Our society will move forward as a united force.  I saw the world work together to save the lives of 33 men: drillers from Pittsburgh, NASA, and other international outlets came.  It was a changing day in history.  Society will remember this day by making great strides to continue the human spirit, and to continue the exemplification of human dignity to people who are unable to restore dignity themselves. 

Week Six: Human Dignity Violation

This week’s assignment was to research a violation of human dignity that has occurred in my lifetime.  Well, the only one I could think of is the one that occurred in my own backyard.  [I will be changing the names to protect the people mentioned] On April 5, 2008, Jane Doe, a sixth grader at Pleasant Hills Middle school, was killed in a two-vehicle collision.  The young man accused of killing her pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault while driving under the influence.  The young man, who was 17 at the time, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.05 when the crash occurred, had marijuana in his system and was driving 79 mph in a 35 mph speed zone.

I knew the girl and her family, and the boy who killed her.  I sat in front of this boy for most of life in school.  I would talk to him; everyone knew he did drugs and alcohol.  However, no one did anything.  Everyone stood around and watched it happen.  I watched it happen.  I did nothing.  I think back every day, could I have done something to change the course of events.  Could I have said, “Stop drinking or stop making stupid choices, or something to that degree?”  I feel like this violation could have been prevented.   If the boy was given the time and attention, he needed then he would not have gone down the road he did. This boy grew up in a bad family, where alcohol, drugs, and violence were prevalent.  His human dignity was almost non-apparent.  He lost himself, and we did nothing but stand around.  The community felt like we caused this to happen, we all felt out dignity go down.  We felt ashamed of ourselves.  For me, I felt the world on my shoulders. 

For my society to keep going on after this is hard and painful tragedy.  Due to the fact, that we lost someone young and special, and it damaged the lives of the people of whom she touched.  The community was wounded deeply, but slowly was healing.  The society started to change its way of thinking.  By creating more law enforcement on the roads to watch for speeding and drunk driving, educating the schools with drunk driving seminars, and creating overall awareness for people who have friends who drink and do drugs.  I have seen the community become safer to walk and drive in.  I feel safer in my community, but why did this act against human dignity need to happen.  Why did someone have to die? Why could not anyone do anything about it?  Why did we not speak up and help the boy to save the girl?  I feel that these violations will no matter what, and we must learn from these.  This is incredible hard to say, but from the ashes of our death; we will rise stronger and smarter.  The only thing we can do is move forward, learn from our mistakes, and keeping going, keep living.

Valentine's Day

Happy valentine's day!  Hope you day is filled with respect and love because everyone deserves a little joy in their lives, to lift their spirits and to let their souls sing.  Enjoy the freedom of loving and receving love. 

Moreover, a little discussion about dignity and relationship. This blog has nothing directly involved with my week's assignment, but dseigned of my own free will.  We all have a relationship with everything. Obviously the relationship we have with the people and objects in our immediate vicinity is more intimate than the rest of the world. For most of us the most common relationship is possession. In our minds we think we own and possess things like cars and houses. This thinking easily spreads into jobs and tasks and even other people. For example, "I want you", and "You are mine alone", is the essence of many romantic film scripts and song lyrics.  It is not possible to possess anything. Care for..yes. Use...yes. But possess...no. You can't take it with you when you go. And yet it's the idea of possession which lies at the heart of all fear, war and conflict. Can you see it? Fear of loss, fear of not acquiring what we have already decided is ours in our minds. Therefore, be a trustee. Everything comes to us in trust, for us to use and then to set it free. The consciousness of trustee sets us free of the tension of grasping and guarding. To see ourselves as trustees of everything that we receive, including our bodies, encourages our innate capacity to 'care for with dignity'. It is a much more relaxing way of relating to the things which we are privileged to receive in life.

Stress then Relief?

I study for days before and hours leading up to a test.  Then when I see that test before my eyes, my anxiety goes up and beyond.  I start to panic and I cannot catch my breath.  However, I start with number one and by the end of the exam I realized that I did one awesome job.

Now, how can I go from believing I am a failure, I am stupid, and that I did not prepare enough for the test.  To going to Yes! A+ I do not understand.  I am intentionally ridding myself of my own dignity, judging my intellifence and humanity to the people around me and the inanimate object (the test).  Why do I do this to myself?  Why does anyone self-tortue themselves?  I do not know if a good grade is worth the pain I put myself through before the test. 

This world is one crazy place, and we are making it crazier for ourselves with every step and word we take.

Wikia

I was creeping on information for the new episode of Glee, today, and the song "firework" is  going to be featured.  So that lead me to watch the music video by Katy Perry and read the lyrics.  I always liked the song, but really never took the time to appreciate the respect and power the lyrics and video portrayed.

The song is about not being afraid to express who you really are on the inside, and about not letting your flaws stop you from having a great life.  This is something I really want to follow, and others should follow as well. 

I feel that it represents aspects of human dignity: respecting the worldviews and the interpersonal relationships that help us define our dignity. 

Final Project Proposal

My project proposal to my peers of this class will capture the ideas that we have explored, and will optimistically move people into action.  My focus in this proposal is to explore mental health as a major contributor to human dignity, and add it to the final project. 

My background on mental health is that I have worked at Western Psychiatric institute for more than one year, I have been volunteering at the children’s institute, and I am currently in my psychiatric and behavioral health class and clinical.  Therefore, I have experience and a foundation of knowledge to investigate the content and depth of mental health as a supplier to human dignity.  This is something I want to know more about, and this is the format to do it, and to be able to educate people about what I have been learning. 

I believe everyone is born with human dignity, even people with mental and behavioral health problems.  People with these problems might not be able to control their thoughts or behaviors, but they are human first, and must be respected and helped.  Furthermore, fifty percent of all people will experience a mental disorder at some point across their lifetime.  It is also the second leading cause of disability in the America.  Having a mental disorder is even more common than having cancer, diabetes, or heart disease.  We cannot judge people with mental disorders because in the end we might be developing a mental disorder as well. I want to change the stigma of the psychiatric and behavioral health disorders. 

My vision for this project is to educate and inform the public about this major problem in America.  Someone will know someone who will have a mental disorder.  How will that person react?  Will they recognize that person as the human they were or the problem that they will become?  We should not have to make a choice.  We lose are own self-worth by humiliation and stereotyping these diseases and people.  They are you and me, and I feel that a large proportion of Americans refuse to realize this. Finally, I desperately want to tell everyone I meet that this could be your father, your sister, your cousin, and even you. 

People with mental disorders are some of the most neglected people in the world. In many communities, mental illness is not considered a real medical condition, but viewed as a weakness of character or as a punishment for immoral behavior. Even when people with mental disorders are recognized as having a medical condition, the treatment they receive is often less than humane. Human rights violations against people with mental disorders occur in communities throughout the world: in mental health institutions, hospitals, and in the wider community. 

The widespread stigma of mental illness, which prevails in countries as disparate as China, India, Kenya, Romania, Egypt, and the USA, marks individuals with severe psychiatric disorders as virtually non-human. None of the world's major religions, no matter how strong is its message of support on behalf of the most marginal and vulnerable sufferers has been able to break this cycle of misery. Nor have modern anti-stigma campaigns and mental health laws. Globalised cultural changes have brought about important reductions in the discrimination, fear, and isolation surrounding depression and anxiety disorders in many countries, and this is no small improvement that holds practical relevance for global mental health in general. Yet the moral conditions for people with psychosis, dementia, and mental disability remain horrendous most everywhere.

The key goals I have for this project proposal are equal citizenship and social inclusion.  Equal citizenship means being able to exercise the same rights as everyone else.  Social inclusion is having the same opportunities as everyone else to have choice in their daily lives, to be independent and participate fully in their communities.  

Furthermore, things that can be done to reduce the stigma and promote education advertisements supported by posters and postcards are distributed in places on campus. The intent is that, as mental illness becomes demystified, young people will better understand the early signs of mental illness and feel able to get help for themselves or their friends.

The media are essential players in any movement for change, as they have an important role in determining public attitudes to mental illness.  Myths and misconceptions about schizophrenia are continually reinforced by stereotypical and often destructive media images — for example, people with schizophrenia are almost exclusively depicted as violent, and inaccurately and quite pervasively characterised as having a “split personality”. Programs are now in place to encourage the media to report mental illnesses such as schizophrenia responsibly. In Australia, the Federal Government has taken a lead through its Mindframe National Media Strategy, which has supported several positive initiatives, including a media kit on responsible reporting for journalists, “ResponseAbility” education resources for journalism students, and expansion of the SANE Stigma-Watch program.

In an era when it is rightly acknowledged that it is better for people with schizophrenia to be treated, wherever possible, in the community, we, as a society, have a clear responsibility to reduce the stigma they face. The sad reality is that, for most people with schizophrenia, living in the community does not mean being part of the community.

I plan to create a presentation at either scholarship day or another forum to present this inform to a large population of a community.  I want to you use various resources, statistics and experiences to cause great audient impact.  Additionally, I think an advertisement campaign about mental health around the campus might cause some a great impact; random facts about behavioural disorders to help reduce the stigma and inform the public. 

Everyone Listen

REMAKE THE WORLD by Jimmy Cliff

Too many people are suffering
Too many people are sad
Too likkle people got everything
While too many people got nothing

Remake the world
With love and happiness
Remake the world
Put your conscience in the test
Remake the world
North, south, east and west
Remake the world
Gotta prove that are the best, yeah

Too many people are suffering
Too many people are sad
Too little people got everything
While the good soffer for the bad

Remake the world
Come on human dignity
Remake the world
Wipe strife and poverty
Remake the world
Get racism from your sight
Remake the world
Be you black, be you white, yeah

Too many people are suffering
Too many people are sad
Too little people got everything
While to many people got nothing

We wile remake the world
With love and happiness
Remake the world
People, put your conscience to the test

Remake the world
And this is no jester, Sir

Remake the world
Come on, come on, Mister

Remake the world
Come on, come on, brother

Remake the world
I sad this is no jester, Sir

Remake the world
So, come on, brother

Remake the world
So, come on, sister

Remake the world
Come on, come on, Mister

Remake the world
And don’t think you are too small

Remake the world
I said, this is no joke, Sir

Remake the world